Winter Herbal Remedies E-Course & Recipes!

I am excited that our first e-course will be starting in early January!  With the covid pandemic this year we (like everyone else) have had to make major changes in how we run our home business.  For many years we have been offering hands-on, in person workshops, classes and events here at Little City Farm, where groups of participants came together to learn, share and make in our small home-based teaching space.  Well, none of these types of in-person activities were possible this year, and so we have been working hard to develop a small offering of online courses instead.  Virtual learning is our preferred method - we can't meet our participants in person, it's more difficult to create a shared group experience, and the hands-on component must be done by each person in their own home without the context of being here on our homestead.  We also don't love the idea of spending more time on a screen, and certainly agree with many that we are tired of zoom videos and meetings.  However, for our first round of the e-course we think we have found a simple, uncomplicated low-tech solution, and are happy to share it with our participants.  Our first e-course filled up quickly!  It's a 12 week Winter Herbal Remedies course running from January to mid March!  We look forward to offering it again in future, as well as developing other of our most popular workshops into online offerings for the spring and summer season. 

For those who aren't able to join us with the Winter Herbal Remedies e-course for this round, we would love to offer some of our favourite herbal recipes for winter wellness that we make each season in our home.  Try the following for immune boosting, easing sore throats, healing coughs, aiding congestion and supporting best health for the winter season.  To make these recipes, if you are looking to purchase bulk dried medicinal herbs, try Harmonic Arts for an exceptional Canadian company with superior quality organic dried herbs and other wellness ingredients.

• Elderberry Tincture
  
• Sage & Horehound Cough Syrup 
• Simple Herbal Throat Lozenges
• Thyme Honey Winter Cough Syrup
• Thyme Lemon Honey Infusion
• Favourite Winter Health Elixirs, Broths & Tonics

 

 

Infused water - easiest herbal summer drink!

Our new favourite drink, infused water!  So simple, so beautiful, so refreshing.  Perfect for summer drinks, to share at your next potluck dinner or outdoor summer feast.

Simple fill a clear bottle or mason jar with fresh cool filtered water.  Add some sliced fruit, a few fresh berries, or sliced cucumbers, top with a few sprigs of herbs and/or edible flowers.  Shake very gently.  Let infuse for at least 30 min.  Then enjoy.  Keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Combinations we love (use what berries & herbs are in season in your garden):

• grapefruit-mint
• orange-cucumber-mint
• basil-strawberry
• lime-rosemary
• raspberry-rose petal
• blackberry-fennel
• lemon-blueberry
• strawberry-mint 
• peach-lavender

New herbal lipbalms

We're working on a variety of exciting new lipbalms.  These herbal lipbalms start with an infusion of organic herbs into organic oil to use as the base for our herbal healing lipbalms, including red clover, lavender, calendula and thyme.  They are steeped for 4-6 weeks in using a solar infusion method.  Red clover, lavender, calendula and thyme all provide wonderful healing qualities for our lips - healing chapped dry lips, cold sores, and offering soothing qualities.  We believe our lipbalms are especially good because of all the time, love and attention that goes into making them.  Coming this fall to our etsy shop.

Going to Seed

We had our annual Seed Saving Workshop here on the weekend.  Our guest facilitator Taarini Chopra from Seeds of Diversity was here to lead the group through all the details to know about saving seeds from the home garden - first of all why to save seeds! Then basic plant botany; distances between varieties to avoid cross-pollination; when to harvest; how to harvest; how to dry (and which seeds dry on the plant); specifically saving lettuce, beans, peas and tomatoes; and lots of interesting hands-on activities like shelling dried beans, and opening soaked fava beans to find the little sprout inside ready to burst out.

There is lots of seed saving information on Seeds of Diversity's website here and below are photos of some of the plants in our garden that have gone to seed - such beautiful and diverse seeds they are (we are very good at letting things go to seed around here - partly unintentional as this time of year is just so busy, and partly intentional as we want to save seeds and let seeds stand for winter food for wildlife.)

Seed collecting - rosehips

We've been gathering our garden seeds - each year we try to harvest some of our favourite varieties to plant again next year, but also seeds that can be used in teas and cooking over the winter (e.g. rosehips, dill, fennel, coriander).  I find the rosehips especially beautiful, and bountiful this year.  They are rich in vitamin C and can be made into tinctures, tonics, syrups and teas, or cooked into healthful jam (yum!).  Rosehips can be gathered fresh (as long as they are fully formed) and dried in baskets or on screens in a well-ventilated area. 

Special note to update my harvesting information - rosehips are sweetest if they are harvested right after the first frost, so can be harvested off the bushes at that point.  If they are shriveled or brown they are past their prime so only harvest the bright red brilliant looking hips.  

Seed saving

Seeds!  Beautiful, powerful, amazing seeds.  Now is the season for saving seeds from the garden.  While we don't save seeds from everything in our garden (it's difficult, given that some of our plant varieties such as squash are too close together so could cross-pollinate), we do like to save many of our favourites each year.  Seeds we do save include unique varieties of tomatoes (those black cherry and Mennonite Orange were so delicious and not always easy to buy), heirloom beans, lettuce, arugula and other greens, kale, sunflowers, and loads of herbs and flowers. 

Then there are seeds we save like fennel, coriander, dill, rosehips and amaranth, where we like to harvest enough seed that we can use some directly in cooking, teas or herbal medicines, as well as having enough to plant again next year.  We also like to leave plenty of seeds standing in the garden for winter foraging for the birds.  Depending on the seed, there are different ways to harvest, dry and store them.  Some can be left on the plant to dry (e.g. some herb and flower seeds, beans in pods, sunflowers, lettuce), but others (e.g. tomatoes) are a little more tricky and need to be harvested fresh from the best quality fruit, then dried out, and stored when fully dry.  For more seed saving tips you can read great information at the Seeds of Diversity website.

Sun art

We finally had a stretch of beautiful sun today - just the right amount of time to try out a sun art project.  This kit was given to our daughter as a Christmas present, and she's been waiting patiently for the right day to try it out.  It uses cyanotype paper (a light-sensitive paper).   By laying out natural objects on the paper, then placing it in the sun under a special acrylic sheet, a shadow print (also known as sunprint, blueprint or sunlight print) is made.   What fun!  First spending time selecting an assortment of favourite leaves, flowers, feathers and stems from the yard, then arranging them in interesting compositions, and finally waiting outside with a timer to make sure they are exposed to the sun for the right amount of time.  A great nature project just right for the attention span of an eager almost-5 year old!  I think some of these are frame worthy.

First spring garden shoots!

Finally!  There are new shoots and greens, buds and leaves starting to come up in the garden.  In the yard we see the snowdrops, tulips, forsythia buds, crocuses...in the garden there are garlic greens, chives, rhubarb, herbs greening up, and berry buds peeking from the moist cool soil..in the greenhouse we have our fresh young lettuce coming up quickly.  We can hear all the spring birds back, and have seen pairs of mourning doves, starlings, cardinals, sparrows, robins, downy woodpeckers, and bluejays frequenting our yard looking for nesting materials.  Such a hopeful time of anticipation...